BANDANA

Embed Messages in Patterns

Scenario: Today, young Iranian activists still face life time prison sentences for talking to Western journalists during protests following Iran’s 2009 elections. Maybe in the future, with a custom app, they would be able to send a message to others inside the protest, or perhaps through a photo to a journalist at the New York Times.

This smart bandana is developed using a computer-generated pattern inspired by the traditional kaffiyeh, an important symbol of activism. With this bandana, protesters are able to preserve their identity while embedding hidden messages in it. Unlike QR codes, messages are not stored in the pattern itself. The pattern provides an extra layer of authentication, a tracker, a way to unlock the message. Different messages can be unlocked depending on the way you fold the bandana.